“I don’t think—”
“And they’re vintage.Does he know how rare some of those sneakers are?”
“Jem, please.”
Hands on hips, Jem blew out a breath.“I just had to get that off my chest.”
“Daniel can’t live with us.”
“That pair of Adidas are worth, like, two hundred bucks.”He held up his hands.“I’m done.I promise.That was the last one.”
“Did you hear me?”
With a grimace, Jem flopped onto their bed.“What’s he supposed to do?”
“He’s supposed to go home.He and Ammon fought.That’s not unusual.They’ll get over it.”
“Yeah, but that’s so shitty, babe.I mean, he’s right, Ammonissuper homophobic.And Lucy is—God, I don’t even know.Passive-aggressively supportive?Who knows?Daniel hates it there.He’s a lot happier here.”
“He has a conflicted relationship with his parents.That is not unique in the history of gay teenagers.He also has parents who are trying to be loving and supportive, who care for him, who feed him, who make sure he has clothes and he gets to activities.”
“And if he doesn’t act like a straight boy, they go crazy.”
“Parents always hate how their teenagers act.They hate how they dress.They hate the music they listen to.They hate their friends.”
“Nobody wants to grow up like that.”
“Everybody grows up like that.”
Jem’s eyebrows went up.
“You know what I mean,” Tean said.
“I thinkyougrew up in a house where you were afraid to come out, and you know how shitty it is.”
“And I’m fine.Daniel will be fine too.”
“He’d be better if he lived with us.”
“No, he wouldn’t.That would be teaching him that the way to deal with difficult relationship problems is to leave.He would have created a serious rift between himself and his parents.”
“They want him to be straight!That’s not going to change, okay?God, I don’t know why I’m arguing on the side of ‘stay away from your shitty brainwashing family,’ and somehow you’re the one telling me I’m wrong.”
Tean pushed his hands through his hair.His fingers tightened until he was pulling hard enough to hurt.Then he forced himself to relax his hands.
“Sorry,” Jem muttered.“That wasn’t cool.”
“No, I—” Tean managed a thin laugh.“I’m confused by it too.”
After a moment, Jem patted the bed next to him.Tean sank down on it, and Jem rubbed his back.
“I appreciate your point about Daniel living in a toxic environment,” Tean finally said.“I understand how difficult that is.At the same time, I also think you’re oversimplifying.Daniel has a lot of support in his life.He has us.He has his friends.He has the community at Rainbow House.”
Jem muttered something.
“What was that?”Tean asked.
Rolling onto his side, Jem pressed his face to Tean’s back.But then he said, “I don’t want to be an adult.”
